Underestimated
by SvC1610512
Summary: Alex Rider proved himself so much that the CIA decides to recruit other teenagers.Which teenagers?The Virals, of course!They send Alex to watch them.But have they underestimated them?Do they know as much as they think they do?Do Tory and Alex bond?Scorpia Rising and Code stly Adventure and Friendship, but will contain some Angst and Romance.(BenxTory and AlexxSabina)
1. Chapter 1

**Honestly, I'm pretty shocked that a Virals/ Alex Rider crossover hasn't been done yet, but whatever. It just means I'm the first, which is cool. I've been on vacation so I had time to write several chapters for this story and another for my story ****Eyes in the Sky****. I'll be updating my story ****Crossed if I ever get past writer's block. **

**Also, I said this in the summary, but I'm just going to reiterate myself: This contains MAJOR spoilers for Scorpia Rising and Code****.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider or the Virals. They belong to Anthony Horowit****z**** and Kathy and Brendan Reichs.**

Alex Rider was … not getting better after Jack Starbright's death, but not getting worse. Which is why they decided that he would be perfect for this mission. He likely wouldn't agree to it … not unless he thought he might lose someone else he cared about. Like the Pleasures, who had taken him in after her death.

They didn't need a teenager, of course, but with this particular mission, it would be in the CIA's best interest; especially since the people they were watching were about his age.

Though it had already been decided that they would blackmail Alex into helping them again, Joe Byrne still had doubts. If they told Alex what they wanted before getting him to agree, he may actually say no, no matter what they threatened him with. The kid had been through hell and back more times than a lot of his older agents had combined. Granted, Byrne had too, but he had actual training. And still had morals. He knew using a fifteen year old boy for missions was... was... okay, maybe he didn't, but he still knew right from wrong. He hoped.

That's what it was. Wrong. And the whole mission itself was wrong.

But still, very effective. Especially for this mission. He could get closer to the targets then a "teacher" could. Actually, by sending Alex Rider, they were able to send one less person. The targets were split between two different schools. Sending a teenager who could get close to the leader and, by default, the rest, was the easiest way for the mission to go smoothly. The leader was a girl, too. From the files, not a normal teenage girl who would fall for any normal tricks, but still. Only a few months younger than Rider. And nearly as crazy a story.

Joe Byrne looked over the files. They had only recently been compiled. The first time these kids' stories became much different from any normal kids, when they solved a forty-year-old cold murder case, hadn't gotten the CIA's attention. Neither had the second, when they found a centuries-old pirate treasure.

What caught their attention was how, in the middle of a category-four hurricane, they tracked down and single-handedly caught a terrorist whom the CIA themselves had been chasing for years, without any success.

Of course, they had torn the case apart, gathering every single detail they could about every single person involved.

When they found out just how amazing these kids were, they looked into it, of course.

Because, no matter how wrong it was, they knew they could use a few more Alex Riders.

Byrne only hoped MI6 didn't find out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Alex Rider or the Virals. They belong to Anthony Horowitz and Kathy Reichs. **

Alex Rider was tossing and turning, trying to go to sleep, when he heard noises like footsteps downstairs.

He would have assumed it was just Sabina or one of her parents using the bathroom, since the one upstairs was currently having plumbing issues, but he hadn't heard anyone go down the stairs. And he definitely would have; those wooden stairs were really, really loud.

He froze. Of course, anyone would have if they were in his situation; it was obviously a person who shouldn't be there. But, given Alex's life, it could be an assassin hired to kill him in his sleep, a psychopath, or a random intruder with who coincidentally picked the house of a former teenage spy to rob.

Yeah, right.

Ever since he had come to America and had time to think, Alex had stopped believing in coincidences.

_Just like Alan Blunt, _he thought to himself. _No, wait, I'm nothing like him._

He had been doing that a lot. Arguing with himself. Not because he was going insane, but because he didn't know what he had done made him.

_Now, think. Out the window__?__ No, dammit, that leaves Sabina and her family alone._

Alex dragged himself out of bed. Though the part of his brain that would always be planning ahead when he was spying was going through possibilities, the rest of his brain was thinking _Nonono not again; I thought I left this all behind me!_

Slipping out his bedroom door, he crossed the hall to Sabina's room. Alex cringed while opening the door; sometimes it creaked, but thankfully, not now.

Sabina was a light sleeper. She woke up the second he opened the door.

"Alex? What's wrong? Another nightmare?" She had become accustomed to him coming in her room in the middle of the night after a bad dream.

Crossing the room quickly while being careful not to make noise, he crouched at the side of her bed. "Shh! There's someone in the house."

She suddenly shot up in bed, eyes wide. "Who?" She whisper-shouted. Too loud.

"Dammit, Sabina! Quiet." He hissed. Then, "We need to wake up your parents and get the hell out of here."

"Okay," she said, swinging out of bed. "Let me just-"

Alex grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room. "No time."

They had almost made it to her parents' room, walking quietly as to not alert the intruder that anyone was awake, when they heard someone start pounding up the stairs.

Alex shoved Sabina in front of him and, no longer caring how loud they were, yelled, "Go!" And, much louder, "Liz! Edward! Wake up, we need to go!"

Sabina's mom appeared in the doorway, with Edward behind her. "Alex? What's going on?"

"There's someone in the house, we need to go!"

"Someone in the house? We need to call the police!" She gasped.

"Call the police on a hired assassin, now there's an idea," Alex muttered while pushing them all into the room, shutting and locking the door behind them. Not that it would help, he'd seen the person coming into the hallway out of the corner of his eye.

Crossing the room, he flung the window open. There was a shed directly beneath it. It had a five- foot drop in between, and then five more feet to the ground, but he had no other options.

"Alex?" Sabina's voice was small. "We're jumping out the window?"

He nodded, then pulled her over to the window.

He had just lowered her (quickly but gently) onto the the roof of the shed when the door to the room burst open. Her mom screamed, and Edward moved in front of her. He was more used to this, as a journalist, and, well, just by knowing Alex. He had been in more danger than Liz had.

Alex whirled, staring at the intruder. Not someone he knew.

The intruder stared back, then growled, "Someone's missing! Where's the girl? Tell me!"

"She … she …" Edward stammered.

"She's spending the night at a friend's house," Alex said smoothly. Believably.

"You and I both know that's complete and utter bullshit, now tell me the truth!" Suddenly there was a gun trained on Alex.

He only hoped Sabina had enough sense to run. Somehow, though he loved her and she was very smart, he doubted it. She didn't operate well under pressure.

Which was further proven by the sound of her falling off the shed.

"Well, guess that answers my question for me," he said to the three people in the bedroom. Then he called, "Get her! Now!"

Alex closed his eyes momentarily. In the four months since he had moved to America with the Pleasures, he had been constantly afraid of this happening. Now it was, and honestly … he was more annoyed than anything else.

Five minutes later, Sabina was brought inside, struggling against two men.

Alex was still planning. Coming up with nothing.

_Three men. At least one, probably all of them, armed._

Without any of Smither's super-clever gadgets, he was stuck. The man still hadn't explained what he wanted either.

The two men tied Sabina to a chair in the dining room, then came upstairs and grabbed her parents and did the same.

"Follow." Alex was a bit surprised that he hadn't been tied with rope, duct taped, chained, and super glued to a chair, considering how many times he had given the biggest terrorist organization in the world the slip. He had concluded that the men likely worked for one of the few remaining members of Scorpia.

When he entered the dining room, all three men had guns trained on the Pleasures, one each. Sabina was crying, Mrs. Pleasure had her eyes closed and looked as if she were praying, and Sabina's dad was glaring at the man holding on a gun on him.

Alex had had enough of waiting. He turned to the man who had caught them in the bedroom and snapped, "Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you want with me this time?"

"Who we are doesn't matter. What we want you to do is simply what we tell you to."

"And what happens if I don't?" Alex asked, though he was already fairly certain.

He was also fairly certain that he would give in (though he swore to himself that he never would again) if they threatened Sabina and her parents. Especially Sabina.

"Then..." The man glanced at Sabina, then made a motion against his throat with one finger. "The same thing happens to them that happened to your housekeeper."

That hurt. A lot. Alex growled, "If you don't get out of here now, that will happen to _you_."

The man holding the gun on Sabina grabbed her hair, forced her head back, and held the gun under her chin, finger on the trigger. She froze, looking at Alex.

Alex had no idea what to do. He didn't want to give in, but … he had no doubt these men would make good on their threats. After Jack, he couldn't let that happen.

Selfish or selfless?

The selfish option ended up with the Pleasures dead, but he wouldn't be working for Scorpia. The selfless option ended up with the Pleasures alive, but he would be working for them.

Selfish or selfless?

He couldn't let anyone else he loved die. He couldn't work for them.

He couldn't have both.

Selfish or selfless?

Selfless.

Just as it seemed the man was about to pull down on the trigger, he shouted, "Okay! I'll do it!"

He slowly lowered the gun. No one moved for what seemed like forever.

Then the man who had caught them in the bedroom drew out a radio from his pocket and said into it: "We've got him, Byrne."

Alex's heart skipped a few beats. He hadn't considered it might be MI6 or the CIA. He'd thought they were done with him.

Apparently, he was wrong.

"You," he spat. "I thought you were done with me." The other two men began untying the Pleasures.

"I have know idea what you're talking about." The man honestly did look a bit confused. "I don't know what they want with you; all I was told was to get you to cooperate. Or else. I don't know what they want with a kid, and I don't want to know."

Alex debated. It seemed like the man really had no idea who he was.

He sighed. "Bring me to him."


	3. Chapter 3

Half an hour later, Alex was sitting in the office of one of the people who had made his life a living hell, looking at said man across a desk.

Byrne hadn't said anything yet, and Alex was getting really, really impatient. Finally, it became too much, and he asked, "So who am I watching this time?"

Byrne shifted in his seat. "You aren't going to like it."

"I never have."

"True, I suppose. But you'll like this even less."

"Just tell me what you want."

"First, you need to know that you will be in absolutely no danger on this mission."

"Heard that before." It'd always been wrong, he had always been in danger.

"There's no danger, believe me."

"I might if you actually tell me what you want me to do."

Byrne sighed. "I guess I actually have to, at some point." Another sigh. "We want you to observe some people for a while that we're considering recruiting."

Alex blinked. That was really, really far from what he'd been expecting. "Okay, and why is that such a big deal?"

"Because the four people we're watching are your age."

Alex jumped up, sending the chair he was sitting in skittering across the floor behind him. "No! I won't help you recruit any more kids."

"We figured that. It's why we got you to agree the way we did. If you want to back out, go ahead, but you know the consequences … "

"Why do you want to recruit more kids? And why do you have your eyes on these ones?"

"We want to recruit more kids because of you, Alex. You have proven yourself nine times over in two years, which is more than most of our agents who have full training in ten years. You are the example. Alex, you're the best spy anyone ever had, and you proved that using kids can be valuable and effective. No one suspects a kid. And as to why we have our eyes on these four kids? Well, in the middle of a category-four hurricane, they tracked down and caught, by themselves, a terrorist who's been making us run in circles for years. That was just what caught our attention, but while investigating, we discovered that they also solved a forty-year-old cold murder case and found a centuries- old pirate treasure – which, I might add, they found in a week, though experts searched for decades and found nothing. That's why we're watching these kids; they're amazing."

Alex couldn't argue that, but he knew that it still didn't make it right; mostly because he had been that kid once. The kid who one day was just doing what he should have been – sports, hanging out with his friends, playing video games – and the next day was the youngest spy in the world.

He had no doubt that the same thing would happen to these kids if he went on this mission.

"I can't do that, Byrne. I can't put them through what I went through."

"You're going to, if you want your girlfriend and her parents to live."

Again, he knew he couldn't have both. He and the Pleasures had been separated almost immediately, and he had been told that they were not going to be released until he completed the mission.

It was at that moment that he realized exactly what he needed to do.

He was going to pretend to cooperate, but he was already thinking about plans to double- cross the CIA and protect these kids. There was no way he could let the CIA do to them what MI6 did to him. He'd have to tread carefully, though, and come up with a plan to get Sabina and her parents out later.

So, perfectly calmly, Alex said, "Tell me what you want me to observe about them."

"Well, basically everything. Their individual strengths and weaknesses, how the others contribute to them, their relationships with each other and with their families. How they interact with each other when they're just hanging out. What they like and don't like." Byrne said. "Everything you can think of that will help us decide whether or not to recruit them."

"And how am I supposed to get close enough to them to find out this stuff?" One last attempt to get out.

"You're going to try to get close to the leader, Tory. Though the youngest and the only girl, she seems to be the one who always drags her friends along with her."

"Yes, but _how?" _Joe Byrne was not like Alan Blunt, who was very … well, blunt in describing the missions.

Now, he sighed. He knew the next part was probably going to be the hardest for Alex. "You'll be going in as Alex Claybourne, cousin of Chance Claybourne. The story will be that he was the only relative you could move in with after your mom Jack Starbright – who never took her husband's name, even before he was arrested for dealing drugs – died in a freak car explosion."

Alex ignored the bit about Jack Starbright, and skipped right to demanding the answer which he had asked for twice already. "Tell me how this is supposed to get me close to Tory."

"Last year her mom Colleen Brennan was hit and killed by a drunk driver. If you say your mom died in an accident with a car and your father is in jail for dealing drugs, she should like you immediately."

Alex nodded slowly, taking in every detail. He knew he was going to become close with this Tory Brennan, but he'd use that closeness in a different way than the CIA was expecting him to. Then a thought occurred to him. "Wait – exactly how close am I supposed to get to her?"

Byrne actually laughed at this. "As close as you need to," he said. "However close you need to be to gain her trust, though gaining trust may be hard."

"And are you going to explain why?"

Byrne slid six manilla folders across the desk. Four were thick, one was thin, and the sixth seemed to only have a few sheets of paper. "I've said enough already; everything you need to know is in these files. The four thick ones are the ones on the kids, the thin one is on Chance Claybourne, and the last is the one with the papers on you."

"Why do I need files on Chance?"

"Well, if you're to be his cousin, you're going to need to know at least some things about him. Also, we're not sure what his relationship with Tory is, though it doesn't seem to be good. He could be a problem."

"When do I leave?"

"In an hour."


End file.
